Kindness Like Snow
by Cornerofmadness
Summary: After the bad guy has been dealt with, Malcolm isn't ready to go home alone. Luckily neither is Dani so he decides to treat her to something iconic: a night at Rockefeller Center.


**Title:** Kindness Like Snow

**Disclaimer**: Not mine, Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver owns it

**Summary** After the bad guy has been dealt with, Malcolm isn't ready to go home alone. Luckily neither is Dani so he decides to treat her to something iconic: a night at Rockefeller Center.

**Notes:** written for the prompt Malcolm and Dani seeing the iconic Christmas Tree. It was fun to research this and thanks to M.K.P., a Central Park Wester who described this year's tree in detail over glasses of wine.

_Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers.- __Kahlil Gibran_

XXX

Malcolm turned his coat collar up against the chill wind, looking up trying to find the rising moon in spite of the fact it was barely six in the evening. Dani stood next to him blowing on her gloved hands. He felt shaky, though not from the cold. This latest capture had sliced close to the bone. He'd managed to talk the man down and felt a modicum of empathy for him. Drummond had been betrayed by his parents, by his siblings, consistently. Two decades plus of gaslighting had finally ended in an explosion. Malcolm had drawn from his own sense of betrayal at Ainsley's hands as he tried to forge a connection with Drummond, and JT, Gil and Dani knew it. They hadn't been aware of what Ainsley had done to him at Claremont – they'd see it first hand soon enough based on his sister's latest text on the airing date – and their growing horror as he spoke sent his mood down into the earth and got it digging.

"I can't believe JT offered to do all the paperwork tonight," he said, his breath crystallizing under the pale yellow of the streetlights.

Dani shrugged, rubbing her arms. "Tally is upstate with her sister helping their mother decorate for the holidays. She'll be there for a few days. He doesn't like going home to an empty house."

Malcolm wondered what it felt like to find loneliness so unusual and unwelcome that he'd volunteer for the tedium of police work. He pulled his straight from Ireland ombre green wool scarf off and draped it around her shoulders. She arched her eyebrows at him and Malcolm shrugged. "I don't mind the cold."

"Thanks." She wrapped it around her neck. "It's so soft. I guess we should get a cab and go home."

To his ear she sounded oddly reluctant to do so but that could be his own feelings. Maybe JT's unwillingness to be home alone was contagious. He hoped not since alone was his default setting. "It's early still," he said, thinking about where they were in the city and what was nearby. It was getting dark and he knew of something he'd like to see since they were near that part of town.

Dani's stomach growled suddenly and she shot him a sheepish look. "I skipped lunch."

He smiled. "I'm not sure that I've even eaten at all today. It's been a bit crazy. Come on, let's find dinner."

"Are you actually going to eat?" She followed him regardless.

"I'll try."

"Where are we going?"

"Trust me."

Within three blocks, he'd led her to Rockefeller Center. The tree would be gorgeous in air this crisp, he knew from past experience. It would be the perfect setting for what he wanted to do and had been struggling to find the proper time and place for it. Of course, he still wasn't sure if he _should_ attempt it but he knew he would. But first, dinner.

"How about that?" He pointed to a seafood place.

Dani shook her head vigorously, "Too expensive."

"My treat."

Dani caught his gaze, wet her lips, and then said, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but your family money makes me uncomfortable."

He glanced away. "Okay, I get that. In a way that's not so bad. I've been in the position of wondering if someone was putting up with me only because of my money. I'm not offended that you don't want to spend it. We're spoiled for choice around here for food. You pick. I'm still willing to pay."

"How about pizza and we buy our own dinners?"

He spread his hands, conceding the point. "Okay."

Dani eyed him suspiciously. "You'll eat pizza?"

"A slice, maybe two. More than that might be a problem."

"All right then."

Dani veered off and found a well-known pizza joint. She beat Malcolm to the ordering counter. "One small pizza." She turned to him. "Do you like pepperoni?"

"Sometimes," he said slowly, side eyeing her.

"Pepperoni please." She put a twenty on the counter. "Since I'll probably be eating more of the pie, dinner's on me."

Malcolm put up his hands in surrender. "Thank you."

They sat down with their dinner. Dani folded her slice and tucked in. Malcolm nibbled off the tip of his and made a face. He set it down and picked off the pepperoni. Dani lifted an eyebrow and pursed her lips at him.

He shrugged. "Too oily after all. Best I just stick with the cheese."

"Your loss." She scooped up his abandoned pepperoni and tossed it on her slice. "Some days I don't know how you live like this."

Malcolm stared at the tabletop, shame washing over him. He knew she didn't mean anything by it. "It's not easy but I don't have much choice. I'm fairly used to it at this point." _Except at times like this_, he thought, _when other people can see me and all my crazy_. "This isn't so bad though."

"I'm glad you like it." She took a healthy bite of her pizza, chewed a moment, took a drink of water before saying, "I wish I could do something to help though."

He smiled. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to buy you dinner but this is nice too. I do appreciate that you want to help. Trust me, I'm not used to that with coworkers, Gil aside. And you are helping."

Dani made a face. "How?"

He picked pepperoni off another slice putting it directly on her half of the pie. "You're here, aren't you? You have no idea how happy that makes me."

"Honestly, I came because you looked so sad earlier," Dani said softly, reaching over to tap his fingers.

"I was but I'm feeling a little better and that's down to having you sharing dinner with me." He smiled as she blushed a bit. He managed another bite of pizza. "I haven't forgotten that first day, when you kept me from getting shot after that unfortunate bout of night terrors. I know you didn't trust me then, you barely knew me, and I had made one hell of a first impression with the whole incidence with Nico."

"That's one way to put it."

"But you showed me great empathy and that told me a lot about your character," he said, and her gaze slipped away like a foot on wet ice. Dani didn't quite take compliments well and that told him even more.

"It was the next case," she said suddenly, meeting his eyes again. "I'll be honest, I wasn't thrilled Gil brought you back in, not at first but then I saw you saved Edrisa's life from that deadly snake and then how you saved that family, that's what clued me in about you."

"I'm curious now." He made an honest attempt to eat the second piece but he was oddly wary of what she would say next.

"You are incapable of following orders and probably have a death wish judging by some of the things you do. But on the other hand, you care about people, the victims, their families and even the criminals. You're more likely to try to talk them down than resort to violence, and you don't always see that in this job. You're smart and you know it but you don't try to make us feel stupid. Believe me, I've been through that scenario many times before." She made a face and folded another piece of pizza. "I think you worry that you are too much like your father but if that were true, would you care about people?"

He sighed. This was heavier conversation than he hoped for. Malcolm wanted to change the topic but he owed her an answer. "No, I wouldn't. That same case hinted that you cared about people too. You took care of me when my head was a mess of snake venom, Ativan and bourbon. You didn't hide your curiosity about my…living conditions but you accepted the answers and didn't have anything snide to say about it."

"And others have."

He waved her off. "I'm used to it." He wasn't happy about it and from Dani's expression, it showed on his face. "I think I remember you making it weird about Sunshine." Malcolm grinned.

She snorted. "Is that your parakeet? How did you come up with that name?"

He wasn't going to tell her that was his mother's pet name for him. "She likes to sing at dawn. Of course, she's probably home trashing my loft."

"She's not in her cage? That seems…risky." Dani helped herself to the remaining slice.

"I let her out to stretch her wings but didn't take into consideration that Mother had put up a small tree in my place." Malcolm winced at the memory.

"Your mother?"

"She likes to help out. Generally, this means she pops up in my place unannounced and has 'helped'." Heaven help him, he actually air quoted that. "The tree looks quite nice if I'm honest."

"And Sunshine is in the tree, isn't she?" Dani chuckled softly.

Malcolm shot her a rueful look. "I could not get her out before I had to get to work. She just kept hopping from branch to branch. I'm going to have a mess to clean up." He'd do it too. He'd hate to have to ask Mother to send her maid to clean off schedule and felt bad in general that his mother sent her in the first place on a regular basis. He preferred to keep his own space in his own way.

Dani laughed harder. "You need to record her in the tree. I'd love to see it."

He held up a greasy finger, wiped his hands and dug out his phone. Malcolm called up the video of Sunshine making the tree her own and utterly ignoring him. He handed to Dani. "Here you go. Now you can see why my mother calls her wretched."

Dani watched the video with a huge grin. "Aww, poor bird. Look at how cute she is. You're never getting her out of there."

"Not until she gets hungry."

"If she eats like you, then she's never coming out."

Malcolm put a hand on his chest in mock hurt. Dani surrendered the phone, and then cleaned up their mess onto one platter.

"You ready to go?" she asked.

"I do but I have a specific destination in mind," he replied, standing.

"Would it be very crowded with a highly decorated tree?" She smiled at him, tightening his scarf around her neck.

"That would be the destination." He reached out and straightened out a snarl in the scarf, trying not to grin like a fool. "When I'm in town this time of year, I always like to see the tree. It's inevitably beautiful."

"I'm game and you know, you're something of a romantic." She patted his arm.

Malcolm hoped the blush rising could be dismissed as a reaction to the cold as they walked down the sidewalk.

"I wouldn't have guessed it, really, at least not at first," she continued. "Or did I just make things weird?"

"You're allowed. I certainly make things weird often enough."

Dani snickered. "True. Like running around your place trying to get me to throw axes."

_Okay, she's never going to think you're merely cold now_! he thought, his face on fire. "I don't remember that."

She hip bumped him. "I told you you wouldn't."

"Sorry I was a handful."

"No offense but you could tattoo to that to yourself." Dani's eyes swept over him. "But I don't think I'd want you any other way. That said, JT might want to shoot you with tranqs every now and then."

Malcolm snorted. "More like every day. I hope I wasn't too out of control, and I'll remind you I was very very high."

"You were in orbit." Dani chuckled. "You did try to get me to dance."

A scene flickered in his mind, him holding her close to his body, enjoying it greatly. "I think I remember you threatening to kick me in the business."

She nudged him. "You told me the business was good. I wasn't sure if you were bragging on your endowments or if you liked a little pain."

"I don't like pain so much I want kicked in the nuts," he assured her and belatedly realized what that sounded like. Her eyebrows raised. Malcolm sighed. "Okay, between us, I'm a little bit of a masochist, but I really don't like the term…or Jungian psychology much for that matter."

"Bright, you don't have to tell me. I figured that out on my own. You don't need to be a profiler to see your masochistic tendencies."

He made a face, adverting his gaze, and she put a hand on his arm, drawing his attention back to her.

"It doesn't matter. You are what you are. I'm not judging and hope you aren't either. I know you've seen into me more than I'm usually comfortable with." Dani hunched her shoulders, and he hated that he might have inadvertently made her feel somehow smaller.

"I can't turn it off sometimes and I am sorry for that," he said softly as they joined the throng that slowly pushed closer to the enormous tree. "I am really the last person who'd judge someone else. I think I remember fragments of things you told me that night but you know what? I don't need to dredge my memory for them. I'm just happy you trusted me enough to tell me in the first place. I'm trying hard not to push you or JT to share things about yourselves that maybe you normally wouldn't. Except his damn name. I _really_ want to know what JT stands for." Malcolm chuckled.

"Good luck. He tells no one."

Malcolm sighed and then someone bumped him nearly knocking him down. Dani steadied him, drawing him against her. He was content to stay there, staring up at the tree. Its thousands of lights glittered like jeweled fairies, absolutely captivating. "It really is beautiful."

Dani made a humming noise deep in her throat. "Look at that star, Bright. Have you ever seen anything gleam like that?"

"Not often. Mother mentioned something about it being made of a few million Swarovski crystals. Pretty sure she covets it. It's spectacular."

Dani grabbed his arm and turned him expertly, with the precision of someone used to grabbing and pinning perps. She whipped her phone out of her pocket and widened her eyes at him. "Selfie?"

He nodded, leaning in. They smiled for a couple of shots before Dani moved away from him. They didn't say anything for a few more minutes, people and tree watching in silence. He took out his own phone and did something he rarely did: use the Milton family name to call in a favor, to be utterly _not_ normal. Regular people would be waiting in long lines to do what he had just asked to be allowed to do.

"Come on," he said to Dani.

"What?"

"Let's go ice skating." He pointed to the iconic Rockefeller rink.

"Have you lost your mind?" Dani took a step back, studying him.

"It'll be fun," he promised. "Can you skate?"

She shook her head. "I've tried. I'm awful."

"Don't' worry. I'll help."

"You can skate?" Dani narrowed her eyes. "Why can't I picture that?"

Malcolm patted his chest. "Mother sent me and Ainsley for lessons as kids." 

"No offense, but you're always getting hurt. Why do I see you dying on skates?" She grinned to take the sting out of the words.

He wrinkled his nose at her. "I'll be fine. It's my treat."

Dani sighed, glancing down at the rink. "The lines will be long and isn't this pricey?"

"It's New York, everything's pricy," He countered. "You've taken care of me a number of times now. Let me repay some of your kindness and don't be mad if I act like a Milton for a few minutes."

"Does that mean you're going to drop the family name and get special treatment?"

"Unfortunately yes. I'm not very good at playing the rich kid card most of the time but how can we come here and not skate? They're getting close to the last skate of the night so…"

"Okay," she said suddenly, surprising him. Malcolm expected more of fight. "But if we die, I'm haunting you."

"Fair enough."

Malcolm did as he promised, used his connections, bypassed the lines and got them their skates and right out onto the ice. Dani shuffled out with hesitant baby steps. He took her hand and guided her to the rail. "Hold on to the rail and to me," he instructed. "Move your feet like you're on a scooter."

"Easy for you to say," she huffed but she got herself moving better quickly. "I'm ready to push away from the rail."

"All right." Malcolm skated toward the inner circle, giving her room. Dani managed to get a few feet before losing her balance. He caught her before she fell.

Dani clawed her way up his arm until she was on her blades again. "Thanks. I told you I was bad."

"You didn't lie." Malcolm grinned. "I'll keep you steady."

He did his best. He caught her three more times. As they made the circuit slowly, Dani's confidence grew and her death-grip on his hand loosened. By the third loop, she grinned like a child seeing a mountain of gifts under the tree. Dani picked up speed as they swung into a fourth turn, the cool blue lights glowing all around the rink gleamed off the ice. Malcolm couldn't remember the last time he felt this free and happy.

She took his other hand and spun around him to the other side to avoid a pack of tourists and their kids, laughing loudly as she did so. "This is fun!"

"We deserved some fun," he said.

Two far more accomplished skaters whizzed past them and Dani instinctively moved closer to him to give them room. She tripped herself up, and she took him down like an antelope before a lion. The ice smacked him in the back of the head as Dani landed on top of him. Malcolm saw glittering lights and lost his breath in a great whoosh.

Dani brushed her gloved fingers across his face. "Bright, you okay?"

"Ouch," he whimpered.

"I'm so sorry."

"Accidents happen," he replied, all too aware of how close she was. He didn't want to move, to lose the warm pressure of her body splayed on top his own. In this light her eyes seemed soft and for once not ready to roll at something he said.

Dani's expression gentled and he thought for a moment she might do something impulsive like kiss him but that was probably his imagination run amok. Instead, she broke the spell. "You sure you're okay? You hit hard and I squashed you. Edrisa isn't wrong about you being slender."

He sighed. At least she didn't tag that with 'you're little' too because he had heard that many a time from women his height or even taller. "Fine. We better get up and be less of a hazard."

Dani struggled, slipped and landed on him again, astride him this time. "I'm a menace."

He chuckled. "I'm not arguing."

She squirmed around, trying to get her feet under her and failing.

"Dani, stop," he said.

"I'm trying to get up."

"I know but you're sort of on top of me," he said, glancing down to where things were in danger of waking up. His face flushed.

Dani rolled to the side, flopping onto the ice and slapped his chest. "Men! Honestly. No control at all."

"I'll refer you to a chapter on the autonomic nervous system," he huffed, sitting up. "Let's get you up."

"I think I've already done that for you," Dani replied as he got onto his knees.

Malcolm pinched the bridge of his nose, biting back a response that wouldn't help matters. "Put your hands on the ice and move into a squat. You can push off the ice better that way." He demonstrated and got back up onto his skates.

Dani wasn't nearly as graceful. She nearly face planted. Malcolm caught her, shifting his grasp to her arms and helped her up. She steadied herself against his chest. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Shall we?" He inclined his head to the far side of the rink.

"Are you sure you want to risk it? Or have we made it weird?"

"It's not weird and for you, I'm willing to risk it."

An unexpectedly shy expression crossed her face. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"I do. I think I remember telling you, you could trust me."

She took his hand and pushed off, making him glide after her. "You did and I am starting to. Trust isn't easy for me but I'm learning when to trust you and when to trust you're going to do your own damn thing no matter what anyone else tells you."

"I have a bad habit of it. It's part of why the FBI fired me," he said, hating it. They did have some reasons to can him and if that was how they'd phrased it, he could live with it better than 'you're like your father.'

"Maybe it's time for you to learn to trust _us_," she said, nearly falling again as a pack of kids crowded her. Malcolm steadied her. "I know you have reasons to distrust deeply but, you trust Gil, right?"

"I do. I trust you too." The need to explain himself welled up. Dani deserved the truth even if it was ugly. "I'm too used to being excluded so doing things my way is pretty much my only option."

"It just seems to me that maybe you're taking risks, too many, because you know it could end badly and all the pain will be over," she said so softly he barely heard it over the noise of the crowd.

He shot her a look both hot and shocked. Dani made a face.

"Now I really made it weird. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like you're borderline suicidal."

"Don't be sorry. You're not wrong." He wanted to tell her not to tell the others but Gil knew it too. He never said it but he'd have to be blind to miss it. Of course, he might be blind to the nonsense his ersatz son got up to because parents often were.

"It would be a loss if you weren't there helping to hold the line against the badness we deal with every day," she said, squeezing his hand. "And I'd miss you."

A sudden laugh bubbled out of him before he could stop it.

"What? I meant that."

"No, I know. I remembered how Gil introduced me to you, as an acquired taste. I think maybe you've acquired it. Not many do."

"And he told JT you'd hate either other," she said, slipping and nearly going down again. He looped a steadying arm around her.

"He wasn't quite right about that. I like JT. I think he might tolerate me at this point." He grinned.

Dani chuckled. "He's fine with you, most of the time. At least he doesn't think you're the killer every case anymore." She returned his smile.

"Wait, what? When did that happen?"

"From the very first case." She gave his hand another squeeze. "You are a little…different."

"I want to argue that but I can't."

Dani picked up speed going around the curvature of the rink. Malcolm matched her right up until the second time she wiped them both out. He agreed with her that it was time to head off the ice before bones were broken. His backside was bruised enough already. He didn't want the evening to end because he hadn't had one this fun in so long. To that end, he chivvied Dani back up to the tree, noticing she was in no hurry to go home either.

"I'm glad we came here," she said, studying the tree.

"Me too. Honestly, I wanted to come here because…damn, I'm going to make this awkward. I'm _so_ out of practice." He winced. He shouldn't have said that.

Dani shot him a cautious look. "What are you up to, Bright?"

He reached into his inner coat pocket. "I wanted to give you a holiday gift but at work it would have been awkward not to mention inappropriate."

"Oh…" She hunched in on herself. "You shouldn't have."

"It's nothing extravagant," Malcolm said hurriedly. "I promise. I knew that would be a bad idea. This is just something I thought you'd like." He pulled out the jewelry box. "It's also not quite what it looks like."

"It looks like expensive jewelry. Bright, I can't…"

"Not expensive. Please, just open the box," he said, his heart sinking. This was going even worse than he thought.

Frowning, Dani complied. Her eyes widened as she looked at the resin dragon at repose. She ran a finger over the small blue and purple gold washed body. "A dragon?"

"It reminded me of you, and I mean that in a good way. Dragons are protectors and you protect the team, even me. I thought it was pretty."

"It is. Wherever did you find something like this?" Dani cradled the dragon pendant in her fingers, bringing it closer to her eyes so she could study it in the reflected light of the tree. "It's so sweet."

"As a profiler, I didn't do a lot of undercover work obviously with the FBI but they did put me into the field for a long-term op, trying to figure out who at a Renn faire was kidnapping and selling kids into sexual slavery. I met a lot of vendors since they were our best suspects. There was this woman originally from Ireland who made these dragons, hand carved the molds. She was about Mother's age and I really liked talking to her so I do keep in touch. It's one of hers. There's a model and run number on her card in the bottom of the box."

"Malcolm, this is…I'm a little stunned." Dani settled it back in the box but all he noticed was she used his name instead of calling him Bright. "I love it. It's very thoughtful but I have no Christmas gift for you."

"You're wrong. You've already given it to me."

She cocked her head to the side. "What are you talking about?"

"You're here with me now! You've been my friend or at least as close as I'm going to get. Do you have _any_ idea when the last time anyone even tried? You've been kind to someone who is so _broken_ people instinctively avoid him."

Dani rested a hand on his arm. "You aren't broken. I wish you'd stop saying that."

He pressed his lips together hard, trying to stopper the emotions. His eyes went wet but he reined it in. "I _am_ broken, Dani. I have been for years. Every day is a struggle."

"But you make it, every day. You give us the best you're capable of and a lot of people are alive and a lot of bad guys are locked away from society thanks to all you do," she said, rubbing his arm. "And so what if you are broken? Edrisa told me once about this concept in Japanese culture called _kintsugi_. It's a practice of repairing broken pottery with gold and it's considered even more beautiful for its scars. That's you. If you were pottery, you'd be _kintsugi_."

A few tears escaped his control. "Thank you," he mouthed, unable to speak.

"Aw, here, I do have a gift for you, Malcolm." Dani threw her arms around him, gathering him against her.

He folded her in his arms, holding tight. He tucked his face against her. Her hair tickled his face. After several long sweet moments, Dani stepped back and he let her slip away. She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Malcolm."

He smiled with all he was worth. "Merry Christmas, Dani."

"Put it on me." She extended the box to him and loosened his scarf that she still wore.

Malcolm obeyed, lingering over the task. Once he was done, he knew the evening would most likely be over but it was still a better one than he'd had in ages. "There you go."

"Thank you." Dani took another selfie and in the photo she surveyed the way the dragon rested against her coat. "I love it."

"It looks even prettier than I imagined."

Dani studied him, her expression inscrutable. "Do you have to go home just now?"

He spread his hands. "You know me, I don't sleep. What did you have in mind?"

"A slow walk, go through the channel gardens, maybe grab a drink."

"I'd like that."

"Maybe freeze a little, especially since I stole your scarf." She flapped the end of the scarf against his cheek.

"So you did." He almost said you might need to find a way to keep me warm but that would probably ruin the mood. He wasn't good at delivering jokes anyhow.

"I almost feel bad. I'll buy you a warm drink after the walk."

"I'll be looking forward to that."

She reached over and took his hand, leading him toward the gardens. He might just follow her anywhere at this point. They still had a lot of things hanging over their heads - the FBI, Lazar, the typical holiday spike in violent crime - but maybe this would be a good holiday after all. Even if it didn't get better than tonight, it was still the best Christmas he'd had in years. For the first time in far too long contentment enveloped Malcolm. What better gift could there be?


End file.
